The Vietnamese Buddhists of the Hai An Pagoda in New Britain have much to celebrate

Many of the members are refugees from the country that was ripped apart by war until the south fell to the communist north in 1975. The temple was founded in Bloomfield that year by those who had escaped.

Then as the boat people escaped, peaking in 1978 and 1979, the temple grew, moving to their pagoda on Cherry Street.

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When they gather on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year and a traditional time of fasting, some members of D.C.’s Jewish community will bring something unexpected: food.

They might pack soup or a turkey sandwich, leftover pasta or a PB&J. What matters is that they’re choosing to eat on Wednesday, when Jewish law commands most of the faithful to abstain from food and drink.

The lunch meetup, hosted by the Jewish young adult group...

Dolores Mejia thought the Chicago Bears could use a Hail Mary.

In fact, she said the prayer several times as she watched the 1986 Super Bowl, pairing the intercession to the Holy Mother with two other rosary staples — the Our Father and the Glory Be — before her team defeated the New England Patriots 46-10 and took home their first and only Vince Lombardi Trophy.

“I was ecstatic, but I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

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Officials at a North Carolina university are being criticized after an incident in which a Sikh student was detained for wearing a kirpan, a curved dagger carried by some Sikhs as part of their faith.

The incident took place Thursday in a student union building at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A 44-second video of the...